The Clockwork Cave Revised!

So awhile back, I mentioned briefly a dungeon that I had run my group through that I thought was pretty neat.  At the time, the One Page Dungeon Contest was going on, and I thought it was a simple enough design that I could fit it on one page.

I was wrong.

It turned out that the one page the dungeon was written on was really only about half of what was actually needed to run the dungeon, I had just filled in the cracks using my mind.

So I've kept on toying with it here and there, making adjustments and alterations, and I've gotten to the point where I'm about halfway done, but already at six pages!  As I went through the writing, though, I kept coming back to a basic problem - I suck at drawing, and the mechanics of the dungeon are unique.  A top down graph paper drawing worked for me because I could see it three dimensionally, and use the drawing in conjuction with what was in my head to explain what was going on to the party.  If I ever wanted someone else to use it, or hell, if I wanted to be able to use it better, I would have to do better.

I needed a professional. 

I'm a huge fan of DCCRPG, and I think in no small part that is due to the amazing artwork of Doug Kovacs.  He's provided the cover art, much of the interior art and cartography for the series thus far, and I think it's fair to say that he's developed the "house style" for the line.  I feel that his mapwork in particular strides the line between cartography and art, like this or this, for instance.

So taking a shot in the dark, I sent him an email, explaining what I was looking for and why I thought he was the right man for the job.  We ended up haveing a wonderful phone conversation last night, the result of which was that he agreed to create the map for the module, and even run his local group through the adventure to playtest it and give me some design advice!

So yeah, I'm pretty excited now, and have to buckle down and crank out the last half of this thing!  More on this as things progress!